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Biomedical subjects

E Gaffuri

Publications and source records attributed to E Gaffuri.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1989

Circadian characteristics influencing interindividual differences in tolerance and adjustment to shiftwork.

The study was carried out to evaluate whether shiftworkers showing different long-term tolerance to shiftwork differ in their circadian adjustments and/or in some behavioural characteristics. Three groups of eight workers, engaged on three shifts in a graphic plant and matched for age and work experience, were selected according to the presence or not of complaints related to shiftwork: (1) no complaints; (2) nervous complaints (anxiety/depression, severe sleep disturbances); (3) digestive disorders (gastroduodenitis, peptic ulcer). They answered questionnaires on family conditions, health status, rigidity of sleeping habits, ability to overcome drowsiness, morningness, manifest anxiety. They also recorded several physiological parameters (oral temperature, grip strength, peak expiratory flow rate, pulse rate, sleep hours) during day and night-shifts. The data obtained indicate that the characteristics of flexibility of sleeping habits, ability to overcome drowsiness, and lower manifest anxiety, are associated with better tolerance to shiftwork. These characteristics do not seem to influence the adjustment of the circadian rhythm of oral temperature passing from day to night-shifts and vice versa. Conversely, morningness appeared to be unrelated to long-term tolerance, but did influence circadian adjustments and sleep behaviour. Among the groups, the subjects with digestive disorders showed a greater phase shift and a reduction of the amplitude on night-work, suggesting a possible relationship also between the short-term circadian adjustment and the long-term tolerance to shiftwork, as pointed out by other authors.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1978

[Proposal for threshold limit values for organic solvent concentrations in alveolar air].

The n-hexane concentration was determined in upper factory environmental air and in worker alveolar air. The relationship between the hexane alveolar concentration, and the hexane environmental concentration (Ca/Ci) was found to be steady during the 4,5 hours exposure and independent of the alveolar ventilation and hexane environmental concentration. These results suggest the hypothesis that alveolar TLV's can be fixed for hexane and other solvents.

Air Pollutants↗
PubMed1975

[The perception of physical performance in different work conditions (author's transl)].

Borg's RPE method was used by the authors to evaluate physical performance of healthy subjects during exercise tests performed either in the night or daytime and involving different muscle masses (upper and lower limbs). The reliability of RPE scale was confirmed. The perception of physical performance appeared to be higher in the night-time and when upper limbs were involved.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[The exposure to tobacco smoke of the employees of a telephone company].

Smoking habits were studied in a group of employees of a telephone company. The smokers were 34% of the subjects interviewed. The non-smokers said that they were bothered by other people smoking everywhere and also to a considerable extent at the workplace. Differences between smokers and non-smokers and between exposed and non-exposed non-smokers were studied by measuring expired CO and urinary cotinine. An expired CO concentration of 10 ppm discriminated between smokers and non-smokers. A mean urinary cotinine concentration of about 16 ng/mg was found in the exposed non-smokers, corresponding to the direct smoking of 1/10 of a cigarette per day. The search for the metabolic phenotype of destromethorphane, which was taken as an indicator of susceptibility to contract lung cancer due to IPA, showed that there were no differences between smokers and non-smokers since the rapid metabolizers, and therefore subjects potentially exposed to risk of lung cancer due to tobacco smoke, prevailed in both groups.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[The prospects for the appearance of pleural mesothelioma in Italy].

The mortality data of Italian males and females due to malignant tumour of the pleura, collected over a period of 7 years, from 1976 to 1985, showed a continuous, rectilinear type, increase. The increase in the quantity of asbestos that was processed from 1945 to 1979 was also rectilinear. On the basis of the well known relationship between asbestos and mortality due to mesothelioma, an extremely high correlation coefficient was obtained between quantity of asbestos processed per year and number of deaths due to malignant tumour of the pleura 25 years later. Extrapolating to the year 2000 on the basis of this relationship, it can be foreseen that at that time the deaths due to malignant tumour of the pleura in Italy will be about 1200 per year. It is recommended to apply a correction factor to this figure in order to obtain the number of true cases of mesothelioma, which are probably about 70% of the deaths attributed to tumour of the pleura.

Asbestos↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Shift-work and housekeeping interference].

In Italy, within the last ten years, an increasing number of women have been involved on shift and night-work not only in the tertiary sector, but also in the industrial one. This has been made possible by the promulgation of Law 903/1977, concerning parity in treatment of both men and women in questions of employment. The work agreements for women night-work have gradually increased over the period 1980-1986 passing from 194 in 1980 to 357 in 1986, with approximately 10000 more women involved each year. The sectors mostly involved in these last years have been the textile, food and mechanical ones. The present study reports the major problems complained by the women shiftworkers as concerns their difficulties in family and social life, and refers the case of a group of women abruptly introduced to night work in a food industry, where they had been previously engaged only on day-work for many years. During the first year of night-work the absenteeism among this group tripled (29.8 days per year on average) with respect to the previous years. The impact on shift and night-work appeared to have been the most disruptive of the whole condition of this group of women, with negative effects on their personal, family and working life. High absenteeism, increasing psychosomatic complaints, worsening of the subjective health status, sleep disturbances, difficulties in family relationships were the main consequences. The women with heavier family commitments, namely those married with children, showed the worst effects.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Usual meal times in relation to age, sex, work activity and morningness-eveningness.

Meal-timing is considered an important socio-environmental synchronizer of circadian rhythms and influences human metabolism; the temporal distribution of food intake has also an influence on human performance. In these last years, in industrialized countries, remarkable changes, both in quality and quantity and in timing, have been determined in eating behavior brought about by changes in social and working organization. In this study the authors have verified the usual mealtimes during working and free-days in a population of 670 city-dwellers, 404 men and 266 women, aged between 17 and 60, including students, housewives, clerks, artisans, tradesmen and industrial workers. The results can be summarized as follows: a. the times of the two main meals show a high stability, both in working and in free-days, at about 1230 for lunch and 1915 for dinner, with a higher variability for the dinner-time; b. there are no relevant differences between men and women; c. there is a progressive advance of the breakfast-time (together with sleeping and waking times) with oncoming age; d. industrial workers advance the breakfast-time, on work days, compared to housewives, clerks, artisans and tradesmen, while the latter delay dinner-time as compared to the others; e. shiftwork breaks up the usual timetables interfering with at least one of the main meals, according to the different shifts (morning, afternoon, night); f. morning types anticipate meal and sleeping times in comparison to evening types, both while working and, above all, on free-days.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Applied aspects of chronoergohygiene.

Chronoergohygiene defines a field of study set on optimizing the work timing compared to the desiderata of human physiology in order to improve the working conditions. Production systems follow their own laws with a timing resulting from economic, technological and natural factors; this timing could contrast with che chronological variables of the person 'involved'. Important aspects to be considered in this regard concern: a energy expense and nutrition, in relation to the mechanization and automation of the working tasks, sociocultural models, individual behaviors in eating habits; b. work performance, with particular reference to the modifications during the life-span and the rhythmic variations in the circadian period; c. toxicologic risks, considering problems of chronokinetics of the toxic agent and of 'chronoesthesia' of the body functions and apparatuses; d. work and social organization, with special reference to shift work, work pace and commuting. The research for a dynamic evaluation of the human-machine interaction in time and into forms of chronological compatibility between man and work organization should optimize industrial hygiene.

Accidents, Occupational↗